The present invention relates generally to golf club shafts and more particularly to a novel laminated golf club shaft and its method of manufacture.
There are numerous factors which affect the performance characteristics of golf shafts such as the weight and balance of the shaft, the flexibility of the shaft and the ability of the shaft to withstand shock. Additionally, of course, a shaft of optimum design must maintain its performance characteristics over a wide range of ambient weather conditions and even be resistant to moisture and other corrosive elements such as hand perspiration and the like.
In addition to the foregoing considerations, it is well known that there is a somewhat intangible, but nonetheless real and important, characteristic of a golf shaft referred to as the "feel," which has a very definite effect on the playability of the shaft as well as the commercial acceptance of the shaft.
A considerable amount of effort has been expended in the past to produce golf club shafts having the desired performance characteristics. Thus, golf club shafts have been made from wood, such as hickory, and from metals, such as steel and aluminum. The wooden shafts have the advantage of not transferring vibrational shocks to the player when the ball is struck during play. On the other hand, the wooden shafts suffer from the disadvantage that they are not easily matched into a complete set and they are very much subject to changes in climatic weather conditions. Metal shafts are not susceptible to variations in physical characteristics in response to climatic changes; however, tubular metal golf shafts transfer a great amount of the vibration to the player when the club head strikes the golf ball. Attempts have been made to remedy the deficiencies of the tubular golf shafts by coating the metal tube with a resin impregnated glass fiber and while the use of such resin impregnated glass fiber coatings on tubular shafts has a tendency to provide a dampening effect on the vibrations normally experienced, nonetheless such coatings have introduced other changes in the playing characteristic of the club. Consequently, there still remains a need for an improved golf shaft that will have the necessary shading in weight which will permit the player to attain greater driving range and control, and which can be accurately adjusted to provide a set of matched golf clubs each having the same feel.